6/19/2013 - How to get your workers back on the 'Right Direction'

As National Employee Wellness Month continues, a key component of workers' overall well-being is not only their physical state but their mental health as well. With this in mind, the American Psychiatric Foundation is launching an initiative aimed at assisting businessowners help their employees who battle depression.

According to studies, depression is one of the top causes of insufficient work output in the U.S, responsible for approximately $44 billion in economic losses among companies each year. To help entrepreneurs maintain a healthy staff, the APF recently developed a program called "Right Direction," which is essentially a toolkit that gives businessowners some ideas for how they can effectively manage their staff and provide those who need it the assistance to conquer their inner demons.

"Employee satisfaction and well-being are strongly linked to business success, which is just one of the many reasons it's important to support those experiencing depression in the workplace," said Marcas Miles, who directs the program. "'Right Direction' is unique in that it goes beyond telling employers what they should do to actually providing them a step-by-step tool to de-stigmatize depression in the workplace and help employees function better both in and out of work.

The program was officially unveiled to the mental health community on May 18 at the APF's 166th annual meeting. Businessowners can find out more about it by visiting their website.

Approximately one in every 10 people in the U.S. deals with depression every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Businessowners may want to update their workers compensation insurance to help their employees whose depression is work-related.